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Modern painting in Brazil can be said to have begun in the early nineteenth century. With the arrival of the Portuguese Court in 1808 and the elevation of Brazil to an Empire in 1815, a process of modernization and growth began. The spirit of the Enlightenment began to filter, in a subdued manner, into Brazil. The most significant change for the arts was the creation of an artistic infrastructure: the establishment of an academy for the training of future generations of Brazilian artists, state-sponsored exhibitions and travel scholarships to study abroad, and a reliable source of secular patronage.